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Category: Mechanics’ Institute Library

California is facing a $13 billion budget shortfall over the next year and a half, and it’s safe to say that the pain will be felt across public services. In some parts of the Bay Area, incoming tax dollars won’t be enough to buy even books for libraries. That’s why, in places like Santa Clarita, libraries are going private. It’s a proven practice: The Mechanic’s Institute in San Francisco’s library has been private since the late 19th century.

What’s to be done when the economy makes books unaffordable, but public libraries can’t fill their shelves? KALW’s Holly J. McDede found a fairly simple answer: Start your own library.

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HOLLY MCDEDE: To get to Kristina Kearns’ library you’ll have to first walk through an antiques shop on Valencia, called Viracocha. You’ll pass old-fashioned typewriters, a few bathtubs, subway station turnstiles, and an assortment of bicycles displayed on the walls. If it’s a Saturday there might also be a live piano player. Once you make it through this jungle of delightful oddities, you’ll run into Kristina Kearns. Chances are she’ll be sitting on a bench reading a book from the library she started.

Kearns’ library doesn’t feel much like a regular library either. The floors are a bit squeakier, and every once in awhile the building, like antique buildings tend to do, stretches. You might not notice it – that is, until Leaves of Grass falls off the shelf.

KRISTINA KEARNS: Oh! Walt Whitman just went down.

Kearns used to work at a bookstore in Greece that really struggled because of the poor economy. When she came back to America, she saw the same thing.

KEARNS: I had been with McSweeney’s Publishing, kind of volunteering for a while before then and helping out with the Rumpus, so it was strange to hear how publishing was dead and books are dead. Over and over again, it was kind of like, “Why are you guys saying this? You should be the ones not saying that!” I think it’s strange.

Kearns also had economic troubles of her own. She found it difficult to afford books, even used ones. She worked five part-time jobs for six months before she could even start buying books – not that she had any time to read the books once she had them. And her small, personal purchases certainly didn’t solve the larger problem going on here.

One day, she struck up a conversation with Jonathan Siegel, the owner of Viracocha, and pitched him the idea of opening a library of her own. It turned out she was talking to the right person. Siegel immediately offered her the space in the back of his antique shop.

KEARNS: His openness to just give me the chance, and his friends who came in and helped me build because I didn’t know what I was doing… that’s kind of, hopefully, what the name represents. All my job is is to keep this physical space open so that people can have this space to do what they want with it.

She called the library “Ourshelves” and set about looking for books. Before long, she had local authors on board. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon personally invited Kearns into his house, and told her to take whatever books she wanted. She went back to her library with 100 of Chabon’s books. Friends of San Francisco Public Library let her exchange books she already had for books she wanted from them.

KEARNS: I think part of it is that it’s not a commercial enterprise. This isn’t about money. This isn’t about stature of any kind. This is just an open space to do whatever you’d like.

Once her doors opened, Kearns started to hear about more libraries sprouting up throughout the Bay Area. In Richmond, a mother put bookshelves filled with children’s books in laundromats. In San Jose, volunteers started an informal lending program when the city failed to provide funds to hire a librarian. Within restaurant Mission Local Eatery lies a cookbook library.

KEARNS: It makes sense to me that the idea is coming out at the same time because books are expensive, and there’s a need to adapt the role of what a bookshop’s role is. When we’re put in a tighter corner, more ideas come out, more sparks and changes.

You know what other year was exciting for libraries? Are you thinking 1854? Because if you are, you’re right. For starters, the economic situation that year makes our current economy seem, eh, not that bad.

Back then, half of San Francisco’s population was unemployed. The gold had run out. So it was time to get creative. A small group of people founded the Mechanics’ Institute Library as a center for adult to learn crafts and trades. It still stands today in San Francisco’s Financial District.

TARYN EDWARDS: MY name is Taryn Edwards, and I’m one of the six librarians that we have on staff here.

To get a sense of what the Mechanics’ Institute Library looks like, first picture Kristina Kearns’ little library in the back of the antique shop. Now, take away the antique shop. Then, add a few floors. Put in an elevator, and a winding staircase. Don’t forget the glass windows.

EDWARDS: A mere five years after it opened, it was immediately too small, so that’s why we had to add two extra floors. And that’s why it’s a bit of a rabbit warren to get down to the next staircase. So it’s usually very quiet here up on the third floor.

It also sounds a lot different than Ourshelves. Ourshelves has a piano player for example while the Mechanics’ Institute has a chess club.

EDWARDS: Chess was always a main aspect of the Mechanic’s Institute, oddly enough, because in Gold Rush California there wasn’t a whole lot of entertainment options in San Francisco that didn’t involve getting drunk or carousing on the Barbary Coast. So our founders, being very moral men, wanted to offer the entertainment option of playing chess.

One thing both Ourshelves and the Mechanics’ Institute have in common that patrons pay for membership. At Ourshelves, the fee can be $120-$240 a year, based on a sliding scale. At Mechanics’ Institute, membership costs $95 a year. For that price, you could buy about six books at a bookstore. Here, take as many books as you want. Just, please, bring them back.

In San Francisco, I’m Holly McDede for Crosscurrents.

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Assuming you are old, you may remember taking out your diary and writing, “Hi Diary! How are you? Sorry to hear that. Me? Well, today I went to school. It was great. I sit behind Jim.” And you may remember thinking, “Publishers! Hello! Over here!” Now there’s a collection of excerpts from diaries as ordinary as yours. It’s calledBeyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries. It’s published by California’s own Heyday Press and the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.We’re talking ordinary people: A 13-year-old girl mapping her neighborhood. A whaler in the San Francisco Bay. A guy named John Muir. A guy named Mark Twain. (They were normal once, after all.)

It’s nice to read books, but sometimes it’s also nice to look at them. At the Beyond the Text: Artists’ Books exhibition, books come in the form of scrolls, pop-ups, and tunnels. Some have no text at all (just the way nature intended them). The exhibition is ending soon, however, so get out to the Book Club of California by December 12 for your last chance to gaze at some studly books. // DETAILS: September 12 – December 12. Monday, 10am – 7pm. Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm. The Book Club of California. 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500, San Francisco

Thursday, December 1

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Cookbook reading // There is now a cookbook to help you figure out how to make random animal parts, like bellies, brains, spleens, tongues, and testicles, tasty. In The Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal, Jennifer McLagan teaches you to think of everything as potential food. Who knew that lard could be such a good dip for french fries? // DETAILS: Thursday, December 1, 6pm. Omnivore Books on Food. 3885a Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco

Hip hop author event // To get you in the mood this holiday season, perhaps you’d like to read about murder. And hip hop. In The Plot Against Hip Hop, those two seem like almost the same thing. By the first few pages, Jay Z is already talking to “Wall Street types” about the newest Jay Z energy drink, which they think will be called Sparkle to “suggest a supple bling effect from the drink.” Most novels make the mistake of not including Jay Z, but this novel has avoided this mistake. Come to City Lights for an inevitably awesome reading with the author, Nelson George. // DETAILS: Thursday, December 1, 7pm. City Lights Books. 261 Columbus, San Francisco

Friday, December 2

Author reading // It’s fruitcake weather, buddy! A Christmas Memoryby Truman Capote is the story of a parentless fellow who joins with an old eccentric to mail the world fruitcakes for Christmas. According to one review on Amazon, A Christmas Memory is “full of characters and a sad situation.” According to School Library Journal, “The outside world barely intrudes on this portrayal of a loving friendship which wraps readers in coziness like the worn scrap quilt warms the old woman.” So if you want to be warmed like an old woman, read this book. Poet and writer Thomas Lynch will be at Mrs. Dalloway’s to read Truman Capote’s book. // DETAILS: Friday, December 2, 7:30pm. Mrs. Dalloway’s. 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley

Monday, December 5

Kurt Vonnegut discussion // In Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions, Kilgore Trout writes about an island that dealt with an Occupy Wall Street situation of its own. Trout tells us that, on this island, rich people owned most of the land and put trespassing signs up everywhere. A big balloon of helium was given to every man, woman, and child who didn’t own property. And away they went; all was solved. In Unstuck in Time: A Journey Through Kurt Vonnegut’s Life and Novels, Gregory Sumner says Vonnegut was not just some old man who had the maturity of a teenager and liked to draw butts and beavers in his books … he had serious issues with wealth disparity. // DETAILS: Monday, December 5, 6pm. Book Passage. 1 Ferry Building Ste, San Francisco

Tuesday, December 6

When Jeanne Durst grew up, she one day looked back at her life and realized she was an alcoholic, like her mother. Then she looked down at her notepad, and it got worse: she was a writer, like her father. Her solution: write a book about it, and call it Fiction Ruined My Family. Durst will be reading this book at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza. // DETAILS: Tuesday, December 6, 7pm. Books Inc. Opera Plaza. 601 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

NaNoWriMo Wrap Up Celebration // As the last days of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMos) came to a close, you probably decided, “Forget this. I’m just going to kill them all” as the conclusion of your novel. And now that all your characters are dead (unless a few of them got away, and will return to, in fact, kill you) it is time to celebrate your novel! There’s no better place to celebrate, after all, than at the Mechanics’ Institute Library. // DETAILS: Tuesday, December 6, 5:30pm. Mechanics’ Institute Library. 57 Post, San Francisco

Stories on Food // We eat. We digest. Something weird is bound to happen during and after. For many, some of our best stories start out with, “So there I was, just eating this hamburger.” This Friday, the folks at Litquake and from the Eat Real Festival are celebrating the wonder and absurdity of stories about food in an open mic. So if you are a food travel adventurer, come on down. And don’t forget: Bring your stomach. It can do some pretty interesting tricks. // DETAILS: Friday, September 23, 6pm. Jack London Square. 466 Water Street, Oakland

Saturday, September 24

Book festival // Discuss the following: The Sky is High. And So. Am I. Also, books. Do they still exist? Libraries? Huh, wait, what are those? Those discussions, and more, will take place this weekend at theSonoma County Book Festival.If you only go to book festivals if they are old, you’re in for a treat, because this one is the oldest general interest book festival in Northern California. Hopefully you have a kid, because that little youngster could be your ticket in to getting to meet Megan McDonald, author of the best-sellingJudy Moody series. She’ll be there, among other residents of the magical book world. // DETAILS: Saturday, September 24, 10am-4pm. Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa

Sunday, September 25

Book sale // This Sunday is your last day to experience the largest book sale on the West Coast. It’s big. It’s the 47th Annual Big Book Sale, hosted by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. All books are one dollar, so be sure to mow the lawn for your dad this weekend to earn your $1 a week allowance and purchase yourself a good read. // DETAILS: Sunday, September 25, 10am–4pm. Fort Mason Festival Pavilion. Marina Boulevard and Laguna Street, San Francisco

Monday, September 26

Book competiton // Don’t have that extra special dollar to buy yourself an extra special book for your extra special loved one/yourself? Well, there are still ways. You just need to be creative and daring. Maybe enter an online competition. There’s one on Monday, and all you have to do is fill out an online form and you could win a copy of Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars. // Monday, September 26. The Internet

Tuesday, September 27

Let’s go back to the happy days of 1518. Wait. What’s going on here? Accidentally imported African insects in Hispaniola lead to an explosion of fire ants, Spaniards flee the ant-infested island in droves, and colonists in Santo Domingo pray for St. Saturninus’ aid against the insect plague. Dear Christopher Columbus: You. You did this. I hope someone writes a book about you and the consequences of your voyage one day. Oh, why look. Charles C. Mann has done just yet in a book called 1943: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. At the Mechanics’ Institute Library, you can hear this author talk about his book and how Columbus affected… everything … and how this relates to immigration policy disputes, trade agreements, and culture wars. // DETAILS: Tuesday, September 27, 6pm. $12. Mechanics’ Institute Library. 57 Post Street, San Francisco

Wednesday, September 28

Book discussion // This year, teachers and librarians throughout the country noticed certain books appearing on their bookshelves, like Twilight and the Hunger Games, and they shook their heads, wagged their canes, and said, “No, no, no, no, no, no! Absolutely not. All this religion. All this violence. Not in my town!” And then every year in the Bay Area, these books are celebrated in Banned Book Week. Join media lawyer Kirk Boyd at the Booksmith for an inside look on censorship and free speech as it relates to libraries and our schools. // DETAILS: Wednesday, September 28, 7:30pm. The Booksmith. 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco

Thursday, September 29

Book launch // Sex. Feminism. Lesbian Werewolves. Yeah. Lunatic Fringe by Allison Moon has it all, or at least what I just mentioned. The book launch party will include a biting booth and … boot blacking. As far as I know, boot blacking is where orphans make sure folks have shiny and black shoes. I’m not sure how that matches up with the werewolf theme, but as a rule the order of events should always go like this: Come to the book launch. And then find out. // DETAILS: Thursday, September 29, 9pm. El Rio. 3158 Mission Street, San Francsico